Question

For a moving object, the force acting on the object varies directly with the object's acceleration. When a force of 16 N acts on a certain object, the acceleration

of the object is 2 m/s². If the force is changed to 40 N, what will be the acceleration of the object?

Answer 1

5 m/s²

Explanation:

1. This is a direct proportion question so since we know that

x ∝ ky

we can input our numbers where N = x and the accelaration = y so

16 ∝ 2k

to work this out replace the proportion symbol with an equals sign so

16 = 2k

using algebra this means

k = 8

2. Now that we know this we can work out the other value as long as we are given one of the values so since we are given 40 we can simply put that into the equation

40 ∝ 8y

replace the ∝ symbol with an equals sign again to work out y

40 = 8y

y = 5

therefore the acceleration of the object will be 5 m/s²